Be Careful With Lightning
by Syra Nyth
Summary: Zeus is throwing lightning, and Annabeth is in a car. The gods are in a meeting, and Percy is severely annoyed. An Achilles Curse, and the Master Bolt. Together? Chaos.


Set after TLO. HOO didn't happen. Percy still has the Achilles Curse, and Annabeth and Percy have just grown stronger in their powers and fighting skills. Percy by himself could challenge a God/Goddess, and depending on who it was, have a fair chance of winning. With Annabeth, it is even more likely.

"Alright, that's it!" Percy muttered angrily, from where he had just had to swerve their car to avoid yet another lightning strike. "I am going up to Olympus, and asking Zeus what in the name of Hades he thinks that he's doing!"

From her seat beside him, Annabeth had an extremely cross expression on her face. Her belly was slightly swollen with their twins, and she didn't want their lives in danger any more than Percy did.

She examined the storm clouds over head with a critical eye.

"Quick, swerve left!" she shouted. Percy did so, and they narrowly avoided yet another lightning strike. He literally growled.

"That. Is. It!"

When they arrived, they quickly opened their doors and ran for the entrance to the Empire State Building, just managing to make it, before lightning hit their car and destroyed it.

Percy's face was a blank mask as he viewed the charred shell of his car, and Annabeth shuddered slightly. She would not want to be Zeus when Percy finally got through with him.

He stormed up to the desk and simply glared at the guard. Said guard, who had seen them before, looked up, paled to a shade that Hades would be proud of, and wordlessly slid the key card over. Percy snatched it up, and strode to the elevator, Annabeth quickly following behind.

After listening to some truly horrible songs, the elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. The view of Olympus was even better than the first time that he'd seen it, but this time he had an even more important mission, and nothing was distracting him from it.

On the way up to the palace, anyone who saw them scattered from the look on Percy's face. Word was passed up the streets quickly, and before too long, Olympus seemed empty, if it wasn't for the people peeking around the edge of buildings, or sneaking a look through tree branches, to try and see what had put the hero of Olympus in such a bad mood.

When Percy reached the doors to the Throne Room, he didn't even knock. He shoved them, and the massive doors flew open, revealing all of the Olympians seated on their thrones.

"Percy?" Poseidon asked warily. "Is there something wrong?"

Percy glanced at him for a mere second, before turning his extremely pissed off glare back to Zeus.

"Why don't you ask the egotistical maniac over there who has repeatedly over the last hour tried to kill me, my wife, and our two unborn children?!"

Upon hearing this, both Poseidon and Athena, as well as the other gods and goddesses, turned their gazes towards the king of Olympus.

"Zeus? What is the meaning of this?" Poseidon's voice was sharp and clipped, and you would have had to be an idiot not to know what it meant.

"Indeed, father, pray tell why exactly you were trying to kill my daughter and unborn grandchildren?" Athena's voice, in comparison, was as cold as a frosted lamp post.

"I am entirely permitted to do as I wish to whom I wish." Zeus's voice was arrogant, but an undercurrent of fear was slightly audible.

"I don't think so. Stop your attacks on me and mine, or I will become severely irritated." The deadly seriousness that was carried through Percy's threat hung in the air for a while, and none of the immortals in the rom doubted his ability to follow it through, before he turned to the gently smiling woman beside him.

"Shall we go?"

"We shall." Annabeth grinned impudently up at him, before she turned and made her way towards the grand doors, which were still wide open from Percy storming through them.

He sent one last glare at the god of lightning, before he began to follow his wife. A mutter, however, turned his head.

"Neither of you will be a threat to me any longer."

He turned fully to see Zeus with the Master Bolt raised, pointed directly at Annabeth, and realised what was going to happen only a second later.

"No!"

The lightning raced towards his family, and he reacted the only way he knew how.

Annabeth didn't hear the mutter, but the shouted 'No' was impossible to mistake. She turned around and her eyes widened in horror as she saw Percy react almost instantaneously. One moment, he was shouting, the next he was sprinting and jumping, and finally, he fell to the ground, after absorbing the lightning meant for her.  
His hair was crispy, and his clothes were smoking slightly from the blast he had taken. Her eyes took less than a second to start filling up with tears, and she rushed to his side, her belly slowing her down with the weight of their twins.

"No, no, no! You can't leave me, you can't leave us! You promised me Percy. You promised. You said that you wouldn't leave me. We're staying together. You're not getting away from me. Don't you dare try, Seaweed Brain. You promised me. As long as we're together. We promised each other. Stay with me, Kelp Head. You're not allowed to leave me just yet. Not yet. You have to stay with me a little longer. You can't leave me. You can't leave us."

Annabeth collapsed onto Percy's chest in tears, unwilling to believe what was happening. In the background, she vaguely heard the gods fighting and shouting at each other, but she didn't care because Percy was dead and nothing mattered anymore. There was no life left for her, there was no hope left in the world. He was no longer in her life. Percy was gone, and nothing could bring him back.

"Wise Girl?" A voice underneath her croaked out. "You OK there?"

She hiccupped a gasp and shoved herself back slightly, gazing down at the body of her husband who was supposed to be dead.

He smiled up at her, as though reading her thoughts.

"Achilles curse, remember? Invulnerability."

Annabeth didn't even try to say anything. She simply threw herself back into his arms, and clung there.

She didn't care about the immortals fighting around them. She didn't care about the fact that they could be ripped apart by yet another quest the next day. All she cared about, was that he was here, with her, safe and alive. And that was where he would stay.

Please review and let me know what you think! Flames are not welcome, but friendly criticism is wanted.


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